Who doesn’t like to play games? Not only are games fun, interactive, and social, but they're also great tools for learning.

With so many demands placed on educators to always be ‘standards-focused,’ game can seem like more of a distraction than an instructional tool (especially to principals passing by). I know many teachers who shy away from games completely because they don’t want their principal to walk in and say, “Umm, Mrs. Pak, why are your students playing around instead of learning?”

On the other hand, games add flair and student engagement to more tedious, yet necessary tasks like teaching math facts, grammar rules and vocabulary, reviewing for tests or even completing lab experiments. Adding an element of competition motivates and energizes students.

Here are my nine student-favorite games to use in K-12 classrooms.

All of these games can be played, with varying degree of difficulty, with younger kinders to older high school students. It’s the subject matter and the materials that are used that make the difference to the students who are playing the games.